I'm still on the first one, but it's so freakin' good that I went ahead and bought the next two. These were recently optioned by Peter Jackson's company for possible films down the road.

Basically, it's naval warfare set in the Napoleonic Wars, with dragons. No magic, no goofy wizards (at least not yet), just good old fashioned dragonwars and sailing frigates. And so far, it kicks ass. MASTER AND COMMANDER meets... dragons, I guess. Excellent book so far.

The first book is the best, but throughout the series Novik shows she knows how to write action. Damn they move... there's a creature battle in the second book that is so visual, I'm not surprised Jackson wanted to make these. Here's hoping he gets to and no one for a second thinks of the puke bowl that Eragon turned out to be.

PS I interviewed Novik about the series back when it was announced, but I haven't gotten a chance to transcribe it yet. It'll be up around the first of the year, though. She's a total geek... actually got her start writing Fan Fiction... whodathunkit?

I am realy trying not to read these books in order to wait and anticipate future movie release. Which might nog come to the screen in many years to come, but keeps the hype living when they get started. On the other hand, I love to read good and fresh fantasy novels. So maybe I'll start on it anyway. Sounds like fantastic stories.

I gotta say the first book kicked major ass. There's a battle in it that I would love to see on the big screen. Dragons, and cannons, and ships, and giant dragon-flying transports and people fighting on the tops of dragons in flight...

I'm reading the first one now. It's very mannered, which may or may not be like the Master & Commander books that I never got around to reading. Sometimes it's hard for me to engage with the story. But you can tell that Novik knows her stuff when it comes to the period, and naval terminology. I like it enough that I'm considering buying the next two, but there are a few other sci-fi series that I might want to check out first.